Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #120: Whacko (2/12/01)
Elte climbs up and down the mounds of snow, thankfully bundled warmly in his down-filled coat and high boots instead of the scratchy wool cloak he wore the day before.
Elte still has the heavy pack, and this time it is filled with loaves of bread and dried fruit instead of whiskey.
Elte is intent on discovering just how the food shortage is affecting the people who are living in the backwoods.
Elte rubs at his face and a little more of the brown stain comes off on his gloves. He figures he will be living with it a while. But he doubts the Simes will even notice.
Wise Snake hikes up a steep, muddy ravine littered with damp logging debris nobody has become desperate enough to salvage and smoke-dry yet.
Wise Snake is muttering to herself and has lost Beni, but hasn't realized it yet.
Elte wonders if the classic Simelan disdain for food will hold them through these shortages.
Elte comes to the top of a rise. He can see a ramshackle straw-thatched hovel or two on the next hill, one with a thin spiral of smoke rising from it.
Elte is caught full in the face by the wind when he reaches the crest of the hill.
Elte: ~~cold~~
Wise Snake shuffles a heavy medical kit around to another part of her back so she can search her cloak for her scarf. She'd thought it was warm but for some reason she is thinking it's colder now.
Wise Snake stops, rather than fall flat on her face.
Elte has spent a lot of time asking the Gens why they didn't return over the border before winter came; now that his Simelan has gotten better, he wants to ask the renSimes the same question.
Elte proceeds on over the rise. A dark spot in the snow begins to resolve itself into the figure of another laden traveller on the path ahead of him.
Elte speeds up his pace.
Elte thinks the silhouette looks somewhat familiar.
Elte approaches more closely and identifies the unmistakable Medusa hair of Wise Snake Farris.
Elte can recognize the curls escaping the scarf that tries to contain them.
Elte has been trying to track down the elusive Snake for several days now, but she doesn't spend much time in the office.
Wise Snake zlins Elte's presence some distance up the trail from her, but it doesn't really register because she has only now noticed that Beni is gone.
Wise Snake turns around and looks and zlins back in the direction of a particularly sordid knot of homeless camps, and sighs in exasperation.
Wise Snake: I knew I shouldn't have passed that privy.
Wise Snake is convinced that Donors become lost in restrooms more often than anywhere else.
Elte: ~~delighted~~
Elte: Hey! You! Hajene Wise Snake!
Wise Snake zlins in vain for Beni.
Wise Snake: Er... me? What?
Wise Snake turns to see who -- oh, Elte -- wants what.
Elte begins stumbling towards her at the best speed he can manage in the snowdrifts.
Wise Snake: Why don't you use the trail like everybody else?
Wise Snake hazards the question, although she's likely to get some sort of inane answer having to do with bold journalism.
Elte: Well, I pride myself on getting off the beaten path, don't you know.
Wise Snake winces.
Wise Snake: Uh-huh.
Elte: Good to see you, Hajene!
Wise Snake zlins what's in his pack.
Wise Snake: What, are you doing a story on robbings and muggings?
Elte: Among other things.
Elte: And I'd been trying to schedule an appointment with you.
Elte: This is wonderful, meeting like this.
Wise Snake: Sure, wonderful.
Wise Snake glances back down the trail again, and then decides Beni will catch up when he catches up... and Elte may as well amuse her in the meantime.
Wise Snake nods to herself.
Elte: You've been working with the renSimes in the back woods. How serious are the food shortages?
Wise Snake: I guess that depends on how serious you are about food.
Elte: Well, how serious are Simes about food?
Wise Snake: Well, we get sick if we don't eat, just like Gens.
Wise Snake: Food is food, and people are people.
Elte: I've had people tell me with a straight face that the only thing that matters is transfer.
Wise Snake: Simes use selyn for energy, and food for the nutritional content.
Wise Snake: What matters kind of depends on the time of month.
Wise Snake: A Sime would not be able to live on just food at all. A Sime could live on just transfer, until their body broke down enough that they could not manage it.
Elte: So they could carry on longer, but it's still a necessity of life.
Wise Snake: Of course.
Wise Snake finds it difficult to believe that anyone could think otherwise, particularly a well-educated person like Elte.
Elte: I'm sure you're aware there's a healthy black market business going on across the border.
Wise Snake: Is there?
Elte: Do you think the smuggling is helping alleviate the shortages?
Wise Snake: I think it's helping to alleviate people of their money quite nicely.
Wise Snake: There's quite a bit of competition for items that cannot be obtained locally.
Wise Snake: Competition drives the prices up, and prices can be fixed.
Elte: Does the Tecton view this black market activity as diverting goods from legitimate markets? Or supplementing them?
Wise Snake scratches her head.
Wise Snake: Well, the Tecton isn't really in the food market at all. I don't think it has an official position.
Wise Snake smoothes back her skanky black mane. It immediately begins popping up again, here and there.
Wise Snake: Although if you ask me, it's a little of both.
Wise Snake: I doubt it's legitimate food vendors who have suddenly taken up smuggling; after all, the way prices are at the moment they can make healthy profits still taking the legal routes.
Wise Snake: Yet, there's been a certain amount of banditry and such where the take has been resold.
Elte: I heard that the Tecton requested that a squad of New Washington soldiers help guard the border and collect tariffs for the in-T government.
Elte thought that story of Edka's sounded really fishy to him; he is curious to find out a channel's reaction.
Wise Snake snorts.
Wise Snake: The Tecton wouldn't dream of suggesting such a thing, trust me.
Wise Snake: And I don't suggest you bring the matter to Arat's attention, unless you want to create a scene.
Wise Snake: It's more of a... good Gen Territory citizens doing their part for border sealing.
Wise Snake nods.
Elte: Oh?
Elte thinks Edka is not the only one exhibiting quite a bit of creativity in describing what's going on.
Elte: It wasn't done under orders from the Controller, then?
Wise Snake's eyes widen in genuine amazement.
Wise Snake: Since when has our good Sgt. Edka shown a propensity to accept orders from foreign officials?
Elte grins.
Wise Snake: And how do you suppose my dear father would rationalize issuing such orders? You know what a rulebooker he is.
Wise Snake: The Tecton has no such authority.
Elte: That's what I thought.
Elte: And I see you're aware of the Sergeant's new, ah, activities. Do you mean the Controller isn't?
Wise Snake: It's really so far outside the scope of his... interest.
Wise Snake smiles darkly.
Wise Snake: And he'd really prefer it that way, unless I miss my mark.
Elte: Yes, he does like to confine his attention to selyn management.
Wise Snake: And really, so far as Edka confines his activities to his own side of the border, does he really require any orders other than his own standing orders to adapt to conditions when out of contact with his superiors?
Wise Snake is aware that Edka is acting more or less completely inside of Sime Territory.
Wise Snake has been meaning to have a word with him about that.
Elte raises his eyebrows in surprise. Edka's pit trap had certainly not been on the Gen side of the border.
Elte thinks that Edka is going to have a great deal of explaining to do when spring comes.
Elte turns his attention to other matters that more directly concern Wise Snake.
Elte: Well, so we have a food shortage. But is the selyn crisis really over, Hajene?
Wise Snake considers.
Wise Snake: Define "crisis".
Elte: Is there enough selyn to sustain the renSimes here, even if we have a blizzard and are completely cut off?
Wise Snake: No.
Wise Snake: Well, for two months perhaps.
Wise Snake adds, after a suitable dramatic pause.
Wise Snake: But that would be with no augmenting for work.
Wise Snake: Or heat. [adds]
Wise Snake eyes the slopes around them, denuded of trees.
Elte: Well, that would be enough to make it to spring thaw. And part of the rationale behind the internment camp idea was to secure a local selyn supply in case of such emergency, right?
Wise Snake: Not as far as I am aware.
Wise Snake: At least not among those who planned the project.
Wise Snake thinks that the common Gen and renSime certainly seemed to see it that way, however.
Elte frowns.
Elte: I think it was Sosu Nick who said that the common renSime would find the very thought of such a nearby gathering of Gens deeply reassuring.
Elte: Their selyn isn't actually needed, then?
Wise Snake: Oh, of course it's needed.
Wise Snake is surprised Elte is unfamiliar with Mr. Birch's voracity where extra selyn is concern.
Wise Snake had thought the two of them were close. Well, perhaps they don't talk of business much.
Elte is well aware of what's in the official reports; he sometimes says things he knows are wrong or stupid just to see how people react.
Wise Snake appears to be genuinely surprised by Elte's question.
Elte: Is that why you're forcing donations from Minister Plum?
Wise Snake looks even more surprised at that.
Wise Snake: No.
Wise Snake assumes Elte means "you" in the sense of the Tecton.
Elte: I understand he had to be drugged unconscious for the last one.
Elte: Perhaps you might explain the rationale?
Wise Snake doesn't see the point. It's for the same reasons that heads are shaved and people given lice baths in prison.
Wise Snake: I suppose, if it wasn't so blindingly obvious I didn't suspect you were trying to annoy me on purpose.
Wise Snake has not been the first to accuse Elte of such a thing, of course.
Elte has always despised the Church of the Purity, but when he interviewed Plum in his cell the guy looked so miserable it was hard not to feel sorry for him.
Elte knows also that many out-Territory Gens have a deep aversion to Simes, and Plum's story is a tabloid writer's bonanza.
Elte has heard the Minister's side of it and knows that the most lurid possible version will be spread far and wide by the conservative press.
Elte would like to be able to provide a more balanced viewpoint.
Elte notes that Snake has refused comment.
Elte: The Minister claims that you took his first donation before he was incarcerated and without his consent. Is that true?
Wise Snake: I don't think it's technically a donation if the person didn't know it occurred.
Wise Snake: In the slang sense, of course, but not the technical sense.
Wise Snake: I would consider it more of a... collection.
Elte has been rather confused by all the claims and counterclaims. Especially since the Sime claims are all founded on information that is zlinned, and the Minister's claims are all founded in divine revelation, none of which can be verified by Elte's own senses.
Elte: Ah, I see. Yes, it would be good to use the language precisely. Did you collect his selyn before he was arrested?
Wise Snake: Yes.
Wise Snake: If you're referring to the most recent arrest. [adds]
Wise Snake actually has no idea if Plum had ever been arrested before this, but thinks it ought to be an interesting exercise for Elte to find out.
Elte: And since he didn't know it had happened, he certainly didn't consent to the collection.
Wise Snake thinks he certainly didn't, unless you use the "silence gives assent" rule.
Wise Snake: Not as far as I know. [agrees]
Elte: Quite frankly, I'm curious. How is it possible to collect selyn without a person knowing it's been done? Unless the person's unconscious, of course.
Elte has not found his own donations particularly exciting, but he certainly knew they were happening.
Wise Snake spreads her hands and tentacles in an elaborate shrug.
Wise Snake: He was asleep.
Wise Snake: Forgive me if I sound a bit callous, but I can't bring myself to care about the consent of a man who would gladly see every Sime who ever lived die a horrible death.
Wise Snake: From my angle, we're all people.
Wise Snake: And he's a mass murderer.
Wise Snake: Literally and wishfully.
Wise Snake: Sometime you should ask him how many children in changeover he's murdered with his own hands.
Elte tries to view the matter from Snake's point of view and then from Plum's. The effort makes him a bit light-headed.
Elte: And in taking this collection, you wished him force from him some reparation for his crimes against your kind?
Wise Snake: No.
Wise Snake seems disgusted by the question.
Wise Snake: I intended for him to be turned back at the border, and I didn't want him stuck here high field. I knew he would not donate.
Wise Snake: It was safer that his field be taken down, but I saw no reason for him to know.
Elte: So you were concerned with safety?
Wise Snake is becoming more and more baffled by Elte's line of questioning, which seems increasingly irrational.
Wise Snake: Of course.
Wise Snake: A high field Church of the Purity preacher soap boxing in the unemployed renSime camps could be a disaster.
Wise Snake narrowly manages to avoid saying "some poor renSime might be driven to a kill", which could probably be taken the wrong way.
Wise Snake: And the potential for riots in the Gen internment camp... well. It wouldn't have done.
Elte: And why did you want him held on this side of the border?
Wise Snake: I thought he would use the opportunity to spread his gospel.
Wise Snake: I had no idea he'd attempt murder, and of an IDAS agent no less.
Wise Snake: Nor did I think he'd actually be jailed.
Elte raises his eyebrows in surprise.
Wise Snake: I did not anticipate that his being low field would create a problem at the border, and I certainly didn't think he'd remain imprisoned for longer than an hour or two, seeing as how he knew Borgmann.
Elte: You wanted to give him the opportunity to preach the virtues of mass murder?
Wise Snake: Yes.
Wise Snake thinks this is the simplest version of what could be a very complicated answer.
Elte: Why?
Elte is finding Snake more and more interesting.
Wise Snake: Partially because it would have kept things interesting.
Wise Snake: Partially because some distractions would have served my purposes.
Wise Snake: It was to be a temporary situation, two or three days at most unless he decided to stay long term on his own.
Wise Snake shrugs.
Wise Snake can see that she overestimated Plum's common sense, Borgmann's generosity and the border guards' job duties.
Wise Snake rarely screws up that spectacularly on multiple fronts when making an "arrangement".
Elte: But he did try to murder the head of IDAS. And he is, exactly as you say, a mass murderer.
Wise Snake: Yes.
Elte: What do you think should be the penalty for these crimes?
Wise Snake considers.
Wise Snake: I don't have a lot of experience in the punishment end of crime and punishment.
Wise Snake: However, it might be appropriate for him to be killed by a berserker one day.
Elte swirls about the Simelan concepts he has been introduced to since crossing the border to take this assignment.
Wise Snake however wouldn't dream of juncting some innocent kid just to get back at Plum, so she'll settle for slowly torturing him while picking his brain to see just how sick it is. That is, if Borgmann ever releases him to her. There has been some hold up with that.
Elte: From all I understand, that could easily happen.
Wise Snake: Not if he never goes back to Gen territory. [points out]
Elte remembers the chaos that ensued when the young courier Storm's mule starting biting Gens in the presence of Simes.
Elte: However, it would punish the Sime who Killed him as terribly as it would hurt him.
Wise Snake sighs.
Wise Snake thinks that this Elte is as thick as a pile of bricks.
Wise Snake: I was speaking theoretically, Elte.
Wise Snake: I didn't think you meant literally.
Wise Snake: Literally speaking, I don't think he can be punished until and unless he can be declared sane by someone less painfully proper than my father.
Wise Snake: Because let's face it. Whether or not the fellow's brain is in perfect working order mechanically, he's a whacko.
Elte raises his eyebrows.
Wise Snake: What kind of a person murders children?
Wise Snake: And feels good about himself for doing so?
Wise Snake: A person who does not view other people as humans.
Wise Snake: The very definition of a psycho, I'd say.
Elte: Any Gen raised with a classical education would be likely to think of both Simes and children as not fully human. And from there, the rest is just a short step away.
Wise Snake doesn't give a rat's ass about any "classical education" that holds that children are garbage to be thrown away if they don't turn out the way you like.
Wise Snake: Whatever you say, Elte.
Wise Snake: Where I come from, murder is illegal.
Wise Snake: And immoral.
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